[ExI] christmas songs 2

[PJ Manney]

Seien,

Of the 6+ billion Homo sapiens sapiens on this globe, we find that
brains can be wired in many different ways.  I am wired for increased
empathy, so much so that I write about the subject and see the world
through that prism.  I'm also wired to love.  I love a lot of people
in many different ways.  I suspect the two are connected.  Perhaps you
are not wired that way.  That's okay, although a lack of empathy would
make it very difficult for you to be a literary critic, since fiction
requires empathy.  But from your writing, I can tell storytelling is
not at the top of your list of interests.

However, in defense of my previous statements, love has a myriad of
meanings and Dickens utilized almost all of them in "A Christmas
Carol", from the interpersonal to the impersonal, including romantic,
sexual, familial, parental, fraternal, religious, platonic,
altruistic, empathic and paraphilic (one could interpret Scrooge's
love of money as a sexual replacement if you really wanted to get
Freudian, which I do not).  Dickens knew that there is no universal
definition for love, as do I.  He knew that what one person calls love
may be different from another's, as do I.  But in the aggregate, all
the forms of "love" represent the bonds humans acknowledge between
each other.  You may call them what you will; morality, ethics, a part
of evolutionary psychology, the golden rule, etc., but the bonds
exist, even on this list.  ;-)

And by the way, if you think humans are objectively rational, or are
capable of making even partially rational decisions without the messy,
mawkish, emotional parts of their brain coming into play (read any
António Damasio), perhaps I could interest you in purchasing a bridge
in Brooklyn.  I'll even put a bow on it.  It makes the perfect holiday
gift...

PJ